Nine labelled 'a mimic' as tennis gods fail to smile on Seven

Seven is unlikely to regain the ground it lost with Australian Open audiences last year as the ‘tennis gods aren’t smiling’ on the network.

A combination of extreme heat and tough draws, which have seen local crowd pullers such as Lleyton Hewitt and Bernard Tomic bow out in the tournament’s first two days, will keep audiences down, according to media analyst Steve Allen.

Allen believes the drop has more to do with the fact that Lleyton Hewitt played on opening day last year. Audiences did punch through the million mark last night (1.060) when Hewitt lost to Andreas Seppi.

“We don’t expect the audiences to increase this year overall,” he said.

“We think there is a chance that the late night matches will increase…we think a number of matches are going to be pushed into the evening because we think players will become quite agitated [due to the heat].”

He also said the draw is not quite as strong as last year.

Last year, Seven was criticised for inundating Australian Open viewers with too much cross-promotion.

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